"I was never told..." - sadly the reality of our Ummah today indeed !

After coming to Islam, I was given a pile of guides compiled for the new Muslim. These books and booklets explained the five pillars of Islam and the six pillars of imaan, and also taught how to perform wudu and salaah. At first, I thought this was quite a lot, as I had previously seen the lack of religious adherence by so-called “Muslims” – those whom I had thought to be Muslims – who didn’t pray, possibly fasted during Ramadaan, and whose extent of following the Shari’ah was restricted to the avoidance of eating pork. After my imaan started to root deeper and I gained a better understanding of what Islam really means, I started to wonder how these customary “Muslims,” who would neither pray nor fast, could even call themselves Muslims.

When I asked about this problem, I received varying answers from both lay “Muslims” and supposedly knowledgeable “Muslims.” The responses were so different, I couldn’t decide which one of them to follow. Most of them claimed that even if a person doesn’t pray, he can still be considered a Muslim. Perhaps due to the number of those who said that, I decided to follow that claim without investigating the topic any further.

I didn’t face this particular matter again until sometime later. Then, someone who was braver than most of the others dared to open his mouth and say that leaving the salaah is, indeed, kuffr. This time, I couldn’t let the matter rest, so I decided to start looking for an answer to this question myself. I started to read books about ‘aqeedah. One of them mentioned something that I had never heard of before as a Muslim: The Nullifiers of Islam. I was shocked! This was partly because I had never given thought to such a serious matter, and partly because nowhere else was I taught that, “Yes! In a blink of an eye, you can nullify your Islam and go from being a Muslim to being a murtadd kaafir!”

Kuffr and riddah are two words that are taboo in the “Muslim” community of Finland. Few dare to utter them aloud and even fewer dare to accuse anyone of falling into them. But what is most dangerous is that most of them don’t even know that there are actions that take people out of Islam, so many people think they are still Muslims, while in reality, they have fallen into kuffr and riddah.

Many people think Islam is like citizenship – once you get it, it remains with you until the end of your life. But Islam doesn’t work with the same principle. It has conditions by which one enters it and nullifiers by which one can leave it – even without knowing it. Just as wudu, salaah, and fasting can be broken by certain actions, so too can one’s Islam be broken, and nothing restores it except sincere repentance. It is the responsibility of every Muslim to protect himself and others from kuffr, so it is necessary to know about those actions which lead to it.

The nullifiers of Islam that deal with democracy and man-made laws are those least mentioned. Participating in government elections and voting in them, as well as military service, working as a lawyer, and criticizing the Shari’ah of Allah, are only a few of the many things which can nullify one’s Islam, and all of them are easy to perpetrate when living in Dar al-Kuffr. The kuffr of these actions is rarely explained to the Muslims, nor are they warned about it; in fact, they are often even incited to commit them by the many evil scholars, the imaams of kuffr and their followers!

The reason for this ignorance is the lack of studying the deen among individuals. Though most of the blame for this negligence could just as easily fall upon the imaams, the “scholars,” and the lecturers. Instead of warning about shirk and kuffr, they belittle their importance, possibly even recommending that one commits kuffr for the sake of some passing worldly benefit or for the sake of “tolerance.” They hold firmly to what they have learned at Murjiah-run schools in the Arab world and elsewhere, teaching – in practicality – that no Muslim can truly fall into kuffr, as they criticize anyone who declares the riddah of a claimant to Islam for his commission of shirk or another act of blatant kuffr.

However, Allah has promised in His Book that even if the Muslims were to abandon their deen, they would be replaced by those who would remain faithful to Him and to His limits. He said, “O you who believe! Whoever of you should revert from his din, Allah will bring forth a people He will love and who will love Him, who are humble toward the believers, powerful against the disbelievers; they strive in the cause of Allah and do not fear the blame of any blamer. That is the favor of Allah, which He bestows upon whom He wills, and Allah is Encompassing and Knowing.” [5:54]

Perhaps the fulfillment of this Ayah in our time came only recently. As the masses of “Muslims” in the world have been falling day by day into kuffr and riddah, into accepting only an irjaa-based creed, and rejecting the clarity of the Quraan and the Sunnah, it was only a matter of time that Allah would replace them with true Muslims who applied the Shari’ah, rejecting kuffr and guarding themselves from riddah, without appeasing anyone who criticized them for doing so.........

..........The only blame that should be cast is at those who are ignorant of the basics of the deen, for what the so-called “Muslim” world is suffering from today is a severe lack of knowledge concerning the nullifiers of Islam. Belittling and neglecting this matter has made it that even a simple matter that nullifies Islam – such as abandoning the salaah – causes great confusion. This makes it more difficult for an honest discussion, especially in Dar al-Kuffr, about nullifiers that involve clear shirk, such as supporting democracy, and other forms of blatant kuffr.........

.........Every Muslim living in Dar al-Kuffr must study for himself and protect himself from these actions, and having made hijrah from Finland, I can fully attest to how difficult it is for one to do so.

It is of the utmost importance for every Muslim to find out about the nullifiers of Islam, to understand them and comprehend their danger, to protect oneself and other Muslims from them, and to judge whoever is guilty of committing them as they really are. Therefore, it is essential to mention one of the very nullifiers that have cost so many individuals the price of losing their deen: refusing to make takfeer of the kuffaar and doubting their kuffr, and this applies to anyone who refuses to make takfeer of any murtadd who has fallen into one of the nullifiers. So, as an example, anyone who denies that a so-called “Muslim” Member of Parliament is a murtadd kaafir – as he has committed shirk with Allah in legislation – is himself a murtadd. And anyone who denies that a so-called “Muslim” in the military service of the kuffaar is a murtadd kaafir – as he has supported the cause of taghout – is himself a murtadd. And anyone who refuses to make takfeer of those who consider the Shari’ah of Allah to be unsuitable for this era, or refuses to make takfeer of those who are fighting to establish democracy, is himself a murtadd. And whoever reads this article can no longer say, “I was never told.”

May Allah protect us from kuffr and make it hated to us for as long as we live. May He forgive us what we have done unknowingly, and take our souls while we are in a state of Islam - Ameen Ya Rabb!

[By Umm Musa Al-Finlandiyyah]